Opinions of 13 Departments including the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on Advancing the National Unified Reform of "Integrating Certificates into One"

• Document Number：No. 31 [2018] of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce
• Area of Law： Industrial and Commercial Management
• Level of Authority： Departmental Regulatory Documents
• Date issued：03-01-2018
• Effective Date：03-01-2018
• Status： Effective
• Issuing Authority： State Administration for Industry & Commerce

Opinions of 13 Departments including the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on Advancing the National Unified Reform of "Integrating Certificates into One"
(No. 31 [2018] of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce)
As required by the Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Accelerating the Advancement of the Reform of "Integrating Certificates into One" (No. 41 [2017], General Office of the State Council, hereinafter referred as the "Opinions"), the reform of "integrating certificates into one" was fully launched across the country on October 1, 2017. For the purposes of practically resolving the problems that the reform in all regions are unbalanced, without one accord, and insufficient, among others, according to the spirit of the instruction of Premier Li Keqiang that the reform of "integrating certificates into one" must be both in name and in fact, 13 departments including the State Administration for Industry and Commerce ("SAIC") hereby agree to the following opinions on advancing the national unified reform of "integrating certificates into one:"
I. Specifying the scope of enterprise-related certificate and business license matters for integration
According to the requirements in the Opinions for the conditions for integration of certificate and business license matters, by summarizing the practices in all regions, all the relevant authorities shall determine through consultation, on the basis of "integrating five certificates into one," to integrate another 19 certificate and business license matters relating to enterprises (including enterprises, individual industrial and commercial households, and farmers' professional cooperatives, hereinafter referred as to the "enterprises") into the business license and "integrate 24 certificates into one" for the first time. The Catalog of Enterprise-Related Certificate and Business License Matters under the National Unified Reform of "Integrating Certificates into One" (see Annex 1) shall be placed under dynamic-updating administration, and certificate and business license matters meeting the integration requirements but not contained in the catalog shall be included in the scope of "integrating certificates into one" periodically and by groups, so as to ensure that a group is integrated once the time is ripe. The relevant authorities shall fulfill their administrative duties according to the division of duties. Enterprise-related certificate and business license matters of a nature of administrative approval or permitting as specified by the law or regulations shall not be integrated.
II. Improving the work process
The reform of "integrating certificates into one" shall be by a mode of business process that the industry and commerce authorities are responsible for gathering and pushing registration, recordation and other information, and the relevant functional departments directly receive, or claim, import and relate the information. On the basis of the working mechanism and technical solutions in relation to the registration rules reform of "integrating five certificates into one," the work mode of "one set of documents, one-form registration and one-window acceptance" shall continue to be comprehensively implemented. An applicant shall, when making enterprise registration, file in "a form" on his/her own, and submit "a set of documents" at "one window," and the registration authority shall directly issue a business license containing a unified social credit code.
III. Advancing the interconnection, sharing and application of information
The industry and commerce authorities shall, based on the applications for enterprise registration and the standard expressions of enterprises' scopes of business and the need for information as determined by all the authorities, achieve the sharing of enterprise information, in part or in whole, through provincial sharing platforms (such as credit information sharing platforms, government affairs information platforms, and the National Enterprise Credit Information Publication System, and the same rule shall apply hereinafter) or the data interfaces between the provincial authorities. All the authorities shall conscientiously research and develop their own or their systems' principles and measures for the interconnection and sharing of the information for the reform of "integrating certificates into one," advance the achievement of connection between provincial authorities or the vertical system of the authorities and existing provincial sharing platforms as soon as possible, open up data transmission channels, and achieve automatic push, import and conversion of information at the provincial level.
IV. Standardizing information gathering items
With the aim of easing the burden on enterprises and raising administrative efficiency, "collection for one time and the same-archives management" of the same information shall be implemented, so as to relieve enterprises of submitting materials from time to time. If existing enterprise registration information is able to meet the need of the relevant authorities for business transactions and regulation, the relevant industry and commerce authorities shall push the information to the relevant authorities so that they no longer have to gather the same information. If it is necessary for the industry and commerce authorities to gather information in a consolidated manner, all relevant authorities shall state their need for the information according to the principles of registration convenience, registration facilitation, and simplification of gathering, and the industry and commerce authorities shall prepare the Information Sharing Items of the Registration Data of Industry and Commerce Authorities (see Annex 2.1) and the Information Sharing Items of Government Agencies of "Integrating Certificates into One" (see Annex 2.2) after collection and reorganization and enter them in the system for standardization of enterprise registration materials and electronic enterprise registration in the whole process. For the recordation information which an applicant does not possess when the industry and commerce registration is under way, or in which an applicant has made a clerical mistake, the relevant authorities shall require the applicant to make revision or correction by fulfilling their administrative duties, without prejudice to enterprise registration or issuing the business license. All regions shall publish the information of the integrated enterprise certificate and business license items through business license QR codes, electronic business licenses, and the National Enterprise Credit Information Publication System.
V. Advancing the application of business licenses featuring "integrating certificates into one, and one code for one business license."
All the relevant authorities shall strengthen the recognition, use and promotion of business licenses featuring "integrating certificates into one, and one code for one business license" within their own systems. Enterprise-related certificate and business license matters satisfying the same needs of government agencies as the enterprise registration information shall be further integrated into the business license, the integrated certificates shall no longer be issued, and enterprises shall no longer be required to provide additional supporting documents regarding the integrated certificates and business licenses. Cross-regional, cross-authority, and cross-industry application of the achievements in the reform of "integrating certificates into one" shall be promoted so as to extend its reach and ensure that each enterprise can do business across the country with "one business license containing one code"
VI. Tightening interim and ex-post regulation
All the authorities shall heighten regulatory concept, change regulatory manners, and direct all regions to make a shift from "waiting for enterprise to show up" to claiming enterprise information through platforms in a timely manner, so as to voluntarily regulate enterprises' operations and tightening interim and ex-post regulation. The relevant functional departments shall make follow-up improvements on the recordation information gathered by industry and commerce authorities in a consolidated manner, intensify standardization and management, and provide the industry and commerce authorities in a timely and accurately manner with the recordation information revised or corrected over the course of interim and ex-post regulation. All the authorities shall ensure the integrity, accuracy and consistence of enterprise information, constantly improve the cross-departmental joint punishment mechanism, establish and improve the credit restraint mechanism, vigorously guide enterprises in conducting self-regulation, tighten social supervision, and turn the reform of "integrating certificates into one" into a catalyst for forming new types of market regulatory systems and mechanisms.
VII. Steps for implementation and division of tasks
1. Preparation (March to June 2018) All the authorities of the State Council shall state the needs for information gathering and standard expressions of scope of business according to their respective certificate and business license matters, the industry and commerce authorities shall amend and supplement the materials for enterprise registration and, according to the need for the business application of all the authorities, jointly develop an Information Technical Solution to "Integrating Certificates into One" (see Annex 3) and data specifications for information technology for "integrating certificates into one," and all provinces shall strengthen the building and improvement of information systems, consolidate foundation, and provide technical guarantee, so as to ensure the achievement of smooth transmission and sharing among all the authorities. The data specifications for information technology for "integrating certificates into one" shall be separately issued and have the same force as this document.
2. Full implementation (the end of June 2018) All provinces shall comprehensively implement the Catalog of Enterprise-Related Certificate and Business License Matters under the National Unified Reform of "Integrating Certificates into One" and include all the certificate and business license matters integrated at the national level in the their respective reform of "integrating certificates into one." If any certificate and business license matter not integrated at the national level but integrated by a province is of the nature of registration or recordation and produces positive effect, it may continue to be promoted; or if it is not of such nature, it shall be adjusted in a timely manner. All the provincial industry and commerce authorities shall, within one day after confirmation and registration, push the enterprise registration information and recordation information of "integrating certificates into one" to the relevant provincial authorities to which the certificate and business license matters belong through the provincial sharing platforms or the data interfaces between the provincial authorities in an automatic and target-specific manner, and the relevant provincial authorities shall receive, claim and verify the shared information within three days.
3. Summary and assessment (July to December 2018). All the authorities shall jointly conduct supervisory inspection of the implementation of the national unified reform of "integrating certificates into one" in all regions, summarize and reorganize experience and practices, find out problems, and further improve the relevant measures.
VIII. Other matters
All regions shall fully take into account the capacity of window staff, systems and equipment after the implementation of "integrating certificates into one," comprehensively increase the personnel, facilities and funding at the registration windows, assign sufficient and capable staff at the windows through optimization of the structure and overall coordination, and make more investment by optimizing the spending structure, so as to guarantee that the development and improvement of systems are completed on schedule; and an authority collaboration mechanism for advancing the national unified reform of "integrating certificates into one" shall be established, all the provincial authorities shall establish rules for regular notification of receipt and processing of enterprise information, and all the authorities shall vigorously implement these Opinions according to their respective duties and tighten the business guidance, supervisory direction and appraisal of all regions, so as to ensure that the Catalog of Enterprise-Related Certificate and Business License Matters under the National Unified Reform of "Integrating Certificates into One" will be comprehensively implemented as of the end of June 2018.
Annex 1: Catalog of Enterprise-Related Certificate and Business License Matters under the National Unified Reform of "Integrating Certificates into One" (Including Standard Expressions and Terms of Scope of Business) (Omitted)
2.1: Information Sharing Items of the Registration Data of Industry and Commerce Authorities (Omitted)
2.2: Information Sharing Items of Government Agencies of "Integrating Certificates into One" (Omitted)
3: Information Technical Solution to "Integrating Certificates into One" (Omitted)
State Administration for Industry and Commerce
National Development and Reform Commission
Ministry of Public Security
Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security
Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Commerce
General Administration of Customs
General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television
National Tourism Administration
China Meteorological Administration
March 1, 2018